May 29, 2004

Rain rain

It's raining again, goddamit. I'm going to move to Sweden. Those two sentences aren't actually linked in a cause-and-effect sort of way, but the weather today does make me feel better about moving country.

Just in case you are one of the random strangers who reads this blog, I'm moving to Sweden for love (awww). On the 23rd of June. I haven't decided yet if I'm tremendously excited or enormously scared. Different things on different days.

Today I am moving house. Our landlord has decided to sell our flat. Luckily, two of Elske's friends are going away for a month and letting us stay in their flat. That exactly covers the time I have left in the country. It's so perfect, it's almost spooky.

I'm being kicked off the computer now, but keep reading later for more tales of adventure, excitement and really boring new jobs. . .

May 13, 2004

Springtime

It was Alice's birthday on Sunday, and we had a picnic in the Meadows. I love British parks with their big stretches of grass and tidy lined-up avenues of trees. I don't why they appeal to me so much (perhaps just the cultural difference?). We started the picnic in the dimly-lit, hangover-filled City Cafe because the weather was looking distinctly dodgy, but moved on hurriedly when the sun came out. It's basically been sunshine ever since, hurrah.

The Meadows are especially beautiful just now, with lines of trees gently snowing pink petals. It was so much like pink snow that Siobahn and I had a blossom fight - scuffling theatrically through the blossom, and throwing like girls (okay S, maybe it was just *me* throwing like a girl - but you must admit, they are difficult to throw).

Sarah arrived back on Tuesday. I went to meet her at the airport. Insanely surreal to see her again, we last saw each other in Hyderabad. We reminisced about all the crazy places we've now met each other and said goodbye.

On Tuesday night, we got free tickets to the New Zealand ballet. Yay, New Zealanders. It was a triple bill, with one set to Stravinksy's Rite of Spring, and one set to Split Enz music. I didn't enjoy the Split Enz one much. The music was just too cheesy. What about bringing lesser known NZ music to the world? But the rest of it was lovely, there were some great lighting effects.

Now that I'm 'home', I'm becoming aware that I'm writing more about other people as well. If you'd rather I didn't refer to you by name, just let me know. Hmm. Or else I'll just start writing about what I think about in the middle of the night . . . I should probably stop this blog soon before it becomes dreadfully introspective and navel-seeking. Although perhaps that would be more interesting that this litany of not-so-titillating tales from my life. ;)

May 04, 2004

Too many holidays . . .

This week is serious job-hunting time. Serious.

I've now been on another two holidays in the last week. Wahey. Patrick and I went on a lovely trip from Monday to Friday. We hired a car, and drove around via Loch Lomond, Glencoe, Oban, Kintyre - on a ferry from Kintyre to Arran, then down to Keswick and Grassmere in the Lake District. Yay.

I'm seriously starting to suspect the Edinburgh is the only part of Scotland that gets the bad weather. Every single time I go anywhere else, it's just amazingly hot and sunny. Must move to the country.

Highlights:
*Robert the Bruce's cave on Arran. Not so much the cave, but the walk there along the cliffs, amidst the gorse and with beautiful views of the sea. And sun. Sun, hurrah. Ooh, and the little baby ferry on the way there. We were one of the two cars on it.
*Hadrian's Wall. Again, the wall wasn't all that horrendously exciting (just another pile of stones), but I've always wanted to see it. Tick.
*Glencoe is always a highlight. No matter how many times I go through there, the mountains still take my breath away.
*Castlerigg stone circle. Wow. Apparently there is someone who went round and tested all the stone circles in Britain for the intensity of orgasms had in them. Skellig (sp?) was the winner. There you go. That's my random factoid for today.

We came back, had a fantastic time at Beltane. Rah. Dancing naked red people, and lots of fire on Calton Hill. I won't drink so much vodka and red wine next time, though . . . .

On Saturday we went to a bothy in Peebles with an assortment of eight other people in a mini-van. That was fantastic. Just to spend the night in the country, among the spring lambs and daffodils. It's a little stone cottage all warmed by wood fires. Lots of fire-lighting fun for the pyromaniacs among us. Not to mention some vege barbecuing fun (yum!), and a bit of demon-catching by other people (you probably don't want to know).

We sang songs all the way home in the van. Pretty much the perfect weekend away.